Home cooking

One of the biggest events for traditional music in 2002 actually took place on November 30, 2001, when Glór, a new £6.5m Irish music centre in Ennis, opened its doors with a concert featuring a doozy of a line-up – Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Gerry O’Beirne and Maura O’Connell, Noel Hill, Tony McMahon and many more. Subsequent events have included concerts by everyone from Altan to Sharon Shannon.

Síle de Valera did the honours for the Glór launch, setting the pace for a year in which traditional music was paid an unusual amount of attention by Ireland’s national institutions. In March, the National Museum ran an exhibition called ‘They Love Music Mightily’, featuring various trad musicians, with an accompanying lecture series. Nicholas Carolan, director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, opened the programme with a talk entitled ‘What Is Irish Traditional Music?’ – a question guaranteed to raise hackles in not a few quarters.

Even more controversially, the Arts Bill 2002 set up a new ‘standing committee’ for ‘Traditional Irish Arts’. A number of high-profile members of the trad community objected vociferously to being corralled in this manner – especially as during the lengthy consultation process that led up to the Bill, the only supporters of the establishment of such a committee were representatives of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, an organisation that’s viewed with suspicion by many in the music business. Keep an eye on this story – it’s not over by a long shot.

2002 was a good year for beginnings, with debut albums by two young Dublin-based groups. Téada (Oisín Mac Diarmada, Seán McElwain, John Blake and Tristan Rosenstock), released their self-titled first CD with a free concert in Temple Bar, and Gráda (Alan Doherty, Brendan O’Sullivan, Gerry Paul, Andrew Laking and Anne-Marie O’Malley) followed a major break, scored when Doherty landed the whistle lead on the Oscar-winning soundtrack of The Lord Of The Rings, with their album Endeavour.

Also launched in 2002 was the long-awaited solo debut from Maurice Lennon, former fiddler with Stockton’s Wing. Produced by Donal Lunny and entitled Brian Boru: The High King Of Tara, the album is an ambitious retelling through music of the story of Ireland’s last High King. Other well-overdue debuts included those of Winifred Horan, fiddler with the US-based trad band Solas; tenor banjo player Éamonn Coyne; and fiddle and whistle player Breda Smyth, who managed to record her album while performing in Las Vegas with Lord Of The Dance, completing a post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA, and giving birth to her first child.

Meanwhile, the old guard continued to produce. Altan released The Blue Idol, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny reprised their band Mosaik, The Dubliners celebrated their 40th anniversary with an album combining classic and recently-recorded tracks, and the a cappella vocal group Anúna marked their 15th year with a performance at the National Concert Hall.

The Cobblestone pub in Smithfield is a haven for traditional music on two counts: its upstairs venue is a genuine ‘listening room’, one of the few venues where acoustic artists can play unhampered by chattering liggers or ringing tills; and in the main bar downstairs, informal trad sessions take place seven nights a week, as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoons and Sunday mornings. Released in July, The Cobblestone Sessions is a tribute to Cobblestone owner Tom Mulligan and was the brainchild of fiddler and mandolin player Paul Kelly, who acted as its producer.

What’s hoped to be the first annual Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival took place in September. Organised by Christine Keenan, widow of the much-loved banjo player, the festival was based in Longford, where the Keenans lived and where Johnny is buried, and was by all accounts a terrific success.

Music Network continued their Best Of Irish series, sending musicians on ESB-sponsored tours around the country. The 2002 programme included tours by the group Dorian (Conor Byrne, Meabh O’Hare, Gavin Ralston and Andrew Murray) and Roscommon musicians Alan Kelly, John Wynne, John Carty and Aileen O’Connor.

The Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick carried on with its good work, hosting concerts, seminars, the Blas Summer School of Irish Traditional Music & Dance, and the second annual Sionna Festival of European Traditional Music. The IWMC offers academic programmes on various topics, including the MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance and the BA in Irish Music & Dance.

All of us in the folk and trad community were deeply saddened by the death of Derek Bell, whose madcap humour and stunning virtuosity endeared him to fans throughout his 30-year career with the Chieftains. The year had already seen the passing of Bobby Clancy of the legendary Clancy Brothers, as well as the untimely death of Gwen Sale, a fine young Scottish fiddler, artist (she illustrated the CD booklet of Niamh Parsons’ 2002 CD Heart’s Desire) and wife of guitarist Dennis Cahill. The pair had met in 1997 at a gig by Cahill and Martin Hayes in Newton-Stewart, Scotland; Sale then moved to Chicago, and she and Cahill were married in 1998. Less than four years later, she was killed when a van lurched out of its lane and careered into her as she was getting into her parked car – a needless tragedy whose effect was devastating for those left behind.

Finally, on a happier note, congratulations to the winners of this year’s TG4 National Traditional Music Awards: Paddy Keenan, Gradam Ceoil (Musician of the Year); Liam Ó Connor, Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana (Young Musician of the Year); Peter Horan, Gradam Saoil (Hall of Fame); Brendan Tonra, Cumadóir na Bliana (Composer); and Len Graham, Amhrànaí na Bliana (Traditional Singer).

May we meet again in the New Year…